New treatment at med center will help some avoid mastectomy

Another Omaha hospital is offering a breast cancer treatment that can make it easier for women to avoid a mastectomy.

The Nebraska Medical Center now offers MammoSite therapy, a targeted radiation treatment.

Dr. Edibaldo Silva, a surgical oncologist at the Medical Center, said the treatment will enable more women to have less invasive procedures such as a lumpectomy. A lumpectomy involves removal of the tumor and surrounding tissue, not removal of the entire breast.

Silva said the therapy has been available nationally for six or seven years. It has been offered for several years at Creighton University Medical Center, Alegent Health’s Bergan Mercy Medical Center and Immanuel Medical Center, and the Methodist Estabrook Cancer Center.

Silva said that in many rural areas, women have chosen a mastectomy, instead of breast conservation with lumpectomy and radiation, because traditional radiation therapy requires six to seven weeks of daily treatments.

Commuting a long distance to a radiation treatment clinic, plus the side effects of such long treatment, was a burden that women wanted to avoid.

The MammoSite therapy is completed in five days instead of six weeks. Silva said that MammoSite therapy is not for all patients. For example, it is not recommended yet for women younger than 50 or those with larger tumors.

The short-term treatment has so far been as effective as the traditional treatment in select patients, said Dr. Patrick Mc- Kenna, director of radiation oncology at Bergan.

Kristy Gerry of Lincoln used the therapy at the Nebraska Medical Center. The treatment took eight minutes, twice per day for a week, said Gerry, director of production at The World-Herald.

“For patient convenience, it’s amazing,’’ she said.

Contact the writer:

444-1122, michael.oconnor@owh.com